Avast with Comodo Firewall?

[Corsair]

Rather than creating a new thread I thought I would ask this here.

I have recently installed avast! Free on my notebook.

I was looking at a firewall to install and was looking at Comodo. I have, however, been browsing the forums at both ends (avast! and Comodo) and it appears sometimes people do have issues with two not playing together nicely.

Now - I am well aware that I should only install the Comodo Firewall.

However, what is the best way to set up avast! Free with Comodo Firewall? Is there a guide somwhere for this particular kind of setup (other than the guide here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/cont...firewall.htm)?

I read that its best to only have one sandbox runnning - so disable the sandbox in avast! free or Comodo Firewall - but I have no idea which one would be the best to disable? Does it matter?

Any help in this regard would be appreciated.

[Anupam]

Corsair, welcome to the forum.

I know its convenient to post in a thread already there on the forum, but the thread on which you posted was not made for the purpose of such queries. Your query is specific, and requires to be posted in a new thread. Therefore, I have moved your post to a new thread here. In future, please take care of such things.

Regarding Avast, and Comodo Firewall, Avast mostly plays nice with other firewalls, but I think it might be Comodo which does not play well with other security software.

When its Comodo, it depends on chance, and luck, if it will play well. Some versions of it are really good, but sometimes, some versions can be messy. Try it out, and if it gives problems, try another firewall.

Regarding sandbox, I don't think that Comodo Firewall has a sandbox feature, but I may be wrong. In general, its a thumb rule, that if a similar feature already exists in a security software, disable that feature in other security software, so that two do not conflict.

[Rizar]

Well, I have Avast and Comodo and they get along fine as far as I can tell. It makes me wonder whether a possible conflict is preventing Comodo from displaying much of anything in its log, but I suspect Comodo is removing most of its logging to reduce resources.

I don't use either sandbox, but the one in Avast seemed a bit more user friendly. I once accidentally deleted some files just trying to get rid of everything in the Comodo sandbox (press 'remove', not 'delete'). And plus it seems it's difficult to remove some entries from the Comodo sandbox without a restart.

But as I haven't used the Avast sandbox much it might have annoyances too. Once these features become more nuanced and stop sandboxing normal programs, then they might be more useful for me.

[Corsair]

Originally Posted by Anupam

Corsair, welcome to the forum.

I know its convenient to post in a thread already there on the forum, but the thread on which you posted was not made for the purpose of such queries. Your query is specific, and requires to be posted in a new thread. Therefore, I have moved your post to a new thread here. In future, please take care of such things.

Apologies. I actually thought that I would get in trouble for creating a new thread for something that would be better off in an on-going discussion.

Regarding Avast, and Comodo Firewall, Avast mostly plays nice with other firewalls, but I think it might be Comodo which does not play well with other security software.

When its Comodo, it depends on chance, and luck, if it will play well. Some versions of it are really good, but sometimes, some versions can be messy. Try it out, and if it gives problems, try another firewall.

Regarding sandbox, I don't think that Comodo Firewall has a sandbox feature, but I may be wrong. In general, its a thumb rule, that if a similar feature already exists in a security software, disable that feature in other security software, so that two do not conflict.

Cheers.

[Corsair]

Originally Posted by Rizar

Well, I have Avast and Comodo and they get along fine as far as I can tell. It makes me wonder whether a possible conflict is preventing Comodo from displaying much of anything in its log, but I suspect Comodo is removing most of its logging to reduce resources.

I don't use either sandbox, but the one in Avast seemed a bit more user friendly. I once accidentally deleted some files just trying to get rid of everything in the Comodo sandbox (press 'remove', not 'delete'). And plus it seems it's difficult to remove some entries from the Comodo sandbox without a restart.

But as I haven't used the Avast sandbox much it might have annoyances too. Once these features become more nuanced and stop sandboxing normal programs, then they might be more useful for me.

Would it be too much to ask what your settings are for both to have them play along ...well so far anyway?

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by Corsair

Apologies. I actually thought that I would get in trouble for creating a new thread for something that would be better off in an on-going discussion.

No problem Corsair. When in doubt, start a new thread .

[Rizar]

Originally Posted by Corsair

Would it be too much to ask what your settings are for both to have them play along ...well so far anyway?

I've experimented with many settings and haven't found conflicts. But I haven't had both of their sandboxes on at the same time. I've had all the Avast shields enabled, and Comodo's Defense+ set to 'clean pc' without problems.

I've also maxed most of Comodo's settings, but I turn off the Comodo Defense+ to save me trouble. When it was enabled it didn't conflict with Avast as far as I could see, so I can switch Defense+ back on as I like.

If I enabled one sandbox I would probably opt for the Avast sandbox just for simplicity. But it had popups for programs I already knew were safe.

Unless the Avast and Comodo sandboxes become smarter, they are too much of a nuisance to me. Most programs don't work very well when heavily sandboxed. And Sandboxie or GeSWall is much better for such protection.

For Avast, I initially had all the web shields enabled, but after a recent bout of connection drops on my slow Internet, I only kept the file, network, script, and behavior shields.

I doubt any of the Avast shields conflict with Comodo, but some of them clogged my connections and lost me connectivity. Or at least I blamed Avast and noticed that my Internet has been stable today.

Defense+ becomes annoying for newly installed apps or freshly moved portable apps, so I turned the Defense+ off too, but just because I didn't like it. It didn't give me problems with Avast running.

My favorite setting in Comodo is on the firewall side. I set the firewall mode to 'custom filter' to force any program seeking a connection to get my permission. The firewall is less annoying than Defense+ and I like to see popups for it.

Once I answer the popups for all of my Internet facing programs, then I close the Comodo tray icon and let the cmdagent process of Comodo work in the background. Comodo still passes the inbound tests, and it uses a default deny for any app without a rule (I have to open the Comodo main program to set new rules; this is because I require 'custom filter' and don't allow Comodo to auto allow apps). I leave it on when I'm testing apps or when I have the Defense+ enabled.

[bo.elam]

If I was installing Avast with the sandbox enabled, after installation I would
open all programs that I usually open and whenever I ll get a pop up for a
program that I know is safe, I would make an exception. That should take care
of most pop ups from the Avast sandbox for programs that you already have
on your PC and it wont interfere with their doing. You wont see pop ups
from the Avast sandbox for programs that are known to you and you ll only
get pop ups for suspicious/unknown files from the internet.

Bo

[Corsair]

Originally Posted by Rizar

For Avast, I initially had all the web shields enabled, but after a recent bout of connection drops on my slow Internet, I only kept the file, network, script, and behavior shields.

I doubt any of the Avast shields conflict with Comodo, but some of them clogged my connections and lost me connectivity. Or at least I blamed Avast and noticed that my Internet has been stable today.

Defense+ becomes annoying for newly installed apps or freshly moved portable apps, so I turned the Defense+ off too, but just because I didn't like it. It didn't give me problems with Avast running.

My favorite setting in Comodo is on the firewall side. I set the firewall mode to 'custom filter' to force any program seeking a connection to get my permission. The firewall is less annoying than Defense+ and I like to see popups for it.

Once I answer the popups for all of my Internet facing programs, then I close the Comodo tray icon and let the cmdagent process of Comodo work in the background. Comodo still passes the inbound tests, and it uses a default deny for any app without a rule (I have to open the Comodo main program to set new rules; this is because I require 'custom filter' and don't allow Comodo to auto allow apps). I leave it on when I'm testing apps or when I have the Defense+ enabled.

Thanks mate. Much appreciated. I do like your setup (after having played with Comodo and Avast a bit).

As I am going to setting up Avast with Comodo for me, as well as others, I'm going to go with a setup quite similar to this.

Although - I won't disable any of the shields (unless they have issues in which case I will tell them to turn specific ones off) in Avast.

I will be choosing the "Firewall Only" option when installing Comodo. I tried out with Defense+ but it required a bit of fiddling that would not be appropriate for my family so I won't be using it.

I will, however, when setting up it for them make sure I have Comodo set to "Custom Filter" and do as you did in setting up.

Thanks for the help with this.

[Corsair]

Well - I've gone with avast! free 6 with Comodo Firewall installed as Firewall Only (so not using Defense+).

Seems to be the best working combination.

Just a note here:
I installed avast! free first. Then – after it was all setup and running (read below) – I first disabled all the shields permanently. Then I turned off the avast! self defence in the settings. This would then let me end the avastui.exe process via task manager. I also went to "Services" and stopped the avastsvc.exe service.

Once this was done I installed Comodo Firewall as Firewall Only then rebooted when asked.

On reboot – I then setup Comodo Firewall (described below).

Only after Comodo Firewall was setup did I re-enable the avast! shields and turn avast! self defence back on.

I have avast! on pretty much default settings (have not changed heuristics at all) except that I have:
- Selected the "Load avast! services only after loading other system services"
- Gone through the shields and selected the option to scan for potentially unwanted programs (PUP)
- Gone through the actions for the shields and made it for viruses: repair, move to chest, delete ; for PUP & Suspicious: ask, repair, move to chest
- Added comodo to exclusions under settings and file system shield
- Gone through the shields and selected the "All Packers" option

For Comodo Firewall installed as Firewall Only:
- Firewall Settings > General Settings: Set to Custom Policy and selected the options to "create rules for safe applications" and "enable IPv6 filtering"
- Firewall Settings > Alert Settings: Unticked the "this computer is an internet connection gateway" option
- Firewall Settings > Advanced: Selected "Protect ARP Cache", "Block Gratuitous ARP Frames", "Block Fragmented IP datagrams" and "Do protocol analysis"
- Ensured that, under the Network Security Policy > Application Rules, that avastsvc.exe, avastui.exe and avast.setup are "Trusted Applications".
- Opened, ran "check for updates" etc, and closed every program on my machine in order to create the rules.
- When prompted – added my network to the "Network Zone" and selected the option to allow other machines within the network to communicate with my machine.

I think doing this will allow general hassle free operation. Its the setup I plan on going with for my parents, sister and fiancee.